Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer
What the new Draft Merger Guidelines could mean for the economy (with Maggie Goodlander)
Sep 19, 2023
Maggie Goodlander, Justice Department representative, joins the podcast to discuss the proposed guidelines on mergers. The conversation dives into the negative impacts of market concentration and the importance of competition. The new Draft Merger Guidelines are explored, highlighting the evaluation of market realities. The connection between dictatorship and monopoly power is also discussed. The economic consequences of the guidelines are emphasized, focusing on the need for a democratic president to prioritize competition and market structure.
37:37
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Quick takeaways
- Mergers can weaken competition, harm consumers and workers, and the proposed guidelines aim to make it harder for big corporations to swallow each other up.
- The new merger guidelines emphasize the need to prevent significant increases in market concentration, preserve competition, and explicitly address the impact on labor markets.
Deep dives
The importance of antitrust enforcement
The podcast discusses the significance of antitrust enforcement in promoting competition and fairness in the economy. It emphasizes that antitrust laws have been on the books for over a century but were largely ignored or forgotten during the neoliberal era. The podcast highlights that concentrated corporate power leads to negative outcomes such as higher consumer prices, lower wages for workers, reduced consumer choice and innovation, and concentrated political power in the hands of a few. It argues that truly competitive markets with robust competitors are essential for economic efficiency and societal well-being.
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